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Based upon the novel "The Short-Timers" written by co-screenplay writer Gustav Hasford.

Stanley Kubrick's 1987, penultimate film seemed to a lot of people to be contrived and out of touch with the '80s vogue for such intensely realistic portrayals of theVietnam WarasPlatoonandThe Deer Hunter. Certainly, Kubrick gave audiences plenty of reason to wonder why he made the film at all: essentially a two-part drama that begins on a Parris Island boot camp for rookie Marines and abruptly switches to Vietnam (actually shot on sound stages and locations near London),Full Metal Jacketcomes across as a series of self-contained chapters in a story whose logical and thematic development is oblique at best. Then again, much the same was said about Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey, a masterwork both enthralled with and satiric about the future's role in the unfinished business of human evolution. In a way,Full Metal Jacketis the wholly grim counterpart of2001. While the latter is a truly 1960s film, both wide-eyed and wary, about the intertwining of progress and isolation (ending in our redemption, finally, by death),Full Metal Jacketis a cynical, Reagan-era view of the 1960s' hunger for experience and consciousness that fulfilled itself in violence. Lee Ermey made film history as the Marine drill instructor whose ritualized debasement of men in the name of tribal uniformity creates its darkest angel in a murderous half-wit (Vincent D'Onofrio). Matthew Modine gives a smart and savvy performance as Private Joker, the clowning, military journalist who yearns to get away from the propaganda machine and know firsthand the horrific revelation of the front line. InFull Metal Jacket, depravity and fulfillment go hand in hand, and it's no wonder Kubrick kept his steely distance from the material to make the point.--Tom Keogh
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Quick Tip by . September 20, 2011
posted in Movie Hype
A very good movie in the first half, and I can understand many folks who feel a little different about the second half. The shift in mood just felt quite strange in a way. I still enjoy it a great deal, but I really don't find the second part as gripping. Perhaps I need to see it again soon.
Quick Tip by . October 21, 2010
posted in Movie Hype
Its 2 movies, the first half good the second ... ehhhh. R. Lee Ermy plays the drill sergeant in the good half and drives hysterical scenes. I think it's supposed to be an anti-war movie, which is the ehhhhh part. It would have been a more convincing comment on "the duality of the universe" if the first 45 minutes hadn't been extremely effective dark comedy.
review by . October 10, 2009
This is my favorite war movie of all time. It feels more like a documentary than a movie. Their depiction of boot camp is as brutal I expect it was 20 years ago. The war scenes are so realistic you will be ducking to dodge the bullets. This entire movie is interesting not a bad part in it. For those of you with little ones at home I warn you this movie has a ton of very foul language in it so you might to watch it after the kids go to sleep.
review by . May 06, 2009
Full Metal Jacket is Stanley Kubrick's entry into the Vietnam War movie sweepstakes that occurred during the eighties. But to be fair to Stanley Kubrick he planned out this film many moons before the others. But due to his infamous lengthy pre-production schedules, this one took forever to be released. The entire film was shot in England (his new home) and all the sets were built from scratch. Because of the subject matter, he received no military assistance from Uncle Sam. The movie was based upon …
review by . October 10, 2009
This is my favorite war movie of all time. It feels more like a documentary than a movie. Their depiction of boot camp is as brutal I expect it was 20 years ago. The war scenes are so realistic you will be ducking to dodge the bullets. This entire movie is interesting not a bad part in it. For those of you with little ones at home I warn you this movie has a ton of very foul language in it so you might to watch it after the kids go to sleep.
review by . December 05, 2008
This is my favorite war movie of all time. It feels more like a documentary than a movie. Their depiction of boot camp is as brutal I expect it was 20 years ago. The war scenes are so realistic you will be ducking to dodge the bullets. This entire movie is interesting not a bad part in it. For those of you with little ones at home I warn you this movie has a ton of very foul language in it so you might to watch it after the kids go to sleep.
review by . February 12, 2008
posted in Movie Hype
I was talking to a co-worker one time and we were talking about movies that left huge impressions on us visually. See, we couldn't agree on what could be considered "great writing" for a movie, so the conversation shifted to visuals, which should have been an easier conversation to have. It wasn't. His idea of a visually stunning movie was "The Fast and the Furious," mainly because of how many explosions and cut-away editing tricks that were on display. He asked me what movies I felt were visually …
review by . January 31, 2004
Based on Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers and directed by Stanley Kubrick who co-authored the screenplay, this film answers two questions: What was it like for a recruit to go through Marine boot camp during the Viet Nam War, and, what was combat like in that war? Unlike a previous Kubrick film, Paths of Glory, Full Metal Jacket neither makes nor implies any anti-war statements. Rather, in my opinion, the two separate but related portrayals "tell it like it was." When I first saw this film …
see all Full Metal Jacket reviews (9)
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